joyful wondering

Birthday Goodness!

2009-03-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

It is my eldest son's birthday today - he's a whopping 4 years old... "not three mommy, actually 4!"

Tempting as it was to run to the toy store and buy him a bunch of trains and track, or cars or games or gadgets, I wanted to concentrate on homemade gifts for my family this year, so I started planning his a couple of months back.

He is CRAZY about cars and loves them in all shapes and sizes and what he loves to do best with them is ride them over different textured surfaces and watch the wheels! It's adorable! He lays down towels, he flattens newspapers, he makes bridges over the sofa cushions etc. etc.

So I decided to make him a playmat that folds up into a little bag for travel (we're off to England at the end of the week!). In the process of researching playmat ideas, I came across a fabric play-house that opens up. I thought that would be perfect for storing the cars inside, so I made one of those too.

All the birthday gifts were travel-inspired this year... as in, inspired by the prospect of a 10 hr flight and needing MANY distractions. So the last piece of his present was an "I Spy Bag". I loved these little bags so much that I made them as favors for the kids who will be coming to his party later today.

All the fabric came from the thrift store (except for the felt, which is made from recycled pop bottles!).

Craftster

2009-02-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

So... my new favorite obsession recently is Craftster.org!! I just Looove it. However, they have this (very sensible) rule that you can't post photos without having ten posts first... so I'm putting pics of some of my creations here so I can link to it.
Here's my wood-nymph costume I made for the Rio Rain Halloween thingy. Enjoy!

Crafty Crafty!

2009-02-09T12:34:00.000-08:00

So... I LOVE February! I know, not that many people say that... it's cold, it's dreary, when I was in college, they called it "suicide month", but this February has been awesome for me!
The Christmas rush is over and the mall is very slow, so I have not been working very much. So I've had more time at home with my adorable boys and lots of family birthdays to craft for!
So here's some of my creations...
1. Messenger Bag for my littelest brother, made from thrift store T-shirts, plastic bags and a belt!
I did a simplified USA flag in reverse appliqué on the front (the white is from the sleeve of another t-shirt).
I made the shirt pocket from the red shirt into a pen-pocket on the inside of the bag.
The lining of the bag is made out of plastic grocery store bags. I took three bags at a time, cut off the handles and the strip along the bottom, sandwiched them between two layers of parchment paper and then ironed them (on the "rayon" setting). The heat from the iron fused the sheets of plastic together and made a thicker, sew-able "fabric". I then just sewed it together on my machine and popped it inside. The stiffness of the plastic "fabric" helped the bag keep its shape as the t-shirt fabric is pretty flimsy.
The strap is made from a belt (also from the thrift store). I liked the buckle detail, so I cut the belt 1/4 of the way down and attached the cut ends to either side of the bag. The loop for the button is one of my old hair-ties and the button is the only thing I bought brand new and just because I LOVED the shape of it. Actually, that button cost more than all the other materials for the bag!
BTW, the toes in the bottom picture belong to my adorable son!
2. Reversed Appliqué T-Shirt for not-so-littlest little brother
It is a simple guitar logo with "Steel Bear" (his weirdo rock name!) written next to it. Around the arm holes, it says "Steel Bear is going to Rock you like a Hurricane" and "It ain't over 'til you hear the Bear roar". The t-shirt itself and the fabric for the guitar insert are both from t-shirts I found at the thrift store.

I hope my boys like 'em!

Greening Gifting... literally?

2009-01-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had our Rio Rain Christmas party... I know, a little late! But we just couldn't find a time before Christmas to get everyone together at a decent hour.
The party was awesome! The manager invited us all over to her place for a meal and gift exchange. She hired some local cooks to prepare an amazing meal of locally inspired dishes and let me tell you, it was phenomenal!
I tried very hard this Christmas to make my gifts as green as possible and I was even more aware of this for the Rio Rain party as it is an eco-friendly store, afterall.

So, it was a couples thing and we were supposed to have a guy gift and a girl gift. My wonderful better half was working on a gorgeous wooden box that we were going to fill with manly things... but at the last minute it didn't come together quick enough so I had to scramble. I ended up getting a cookbook from Ten Thousand Villages. It's called "More With Less" and it's similar in its goal to the other cookbook I have from there (see my previous post about Recipes from around the World) in that it tries to give recipes that help us reduce the excessive amount of food we consume in the West so that the rest of the world can have enough. More with Less is a great cookbook - full of homemade recipes. So I included a copy of the cookbook and then I made two of the snack recipes - some chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies and some cinamon-topped muffins.

I made little origami boxes out of parchment paper and wax paper to wrap them in. The cookies were funny because they called for peanut butter in the recipe, but we don't have any in our house because the kids can't eat it and close friends of ours have a son who is very allergic to peanuts. So I usually use sunflower seed butter instead. Little did I know that when sunflower seeds and baking soda/powder are combined, they turn green! So the whole batch of cookies ended up green! I looked it up online and discovered the route of the green and apparently it's not dangerous at all so I just left them like that. Now I know what to use come St Patrick's Day!

My girl gift was my special project. We have had these really cute kids shirts in the store that have a rock-paper-scissors motif on them (they're made by Fig clothing) and all of the girls were complaining that we didn't get them in adult sizes! So I bought one and chopped out the motif and used it to adorn a skirt-bag. A friend of mine from Metro told me how to make a bag (purse) out of a lined skirt. It is very simple -
1. Measure from the waist down and determine how deep you want your bag to be. Then leave half an inch or so for seam allowance and cut a straight line across the bottom of the skirt. Save the scraps!
2. Trim the bottom corners so that they are a little more curved.
3. Turn the skirt inside out, pull the lining up and out of the way and then sew the bottom edge. I usually do a couple of runs on this to make it nice and strong.
4. Do the same thing with the lining, but leave a few inches un-sewn so that you can turn it the right side out.
5. Turn right side out, pulling the main body of the bag through the hole in the lining. Stitch up the hole by hand.
6. Using your off-cut from the bottom of the skirt, make two straps for the handles. Take the cut-off piece and cut it in half so you have two equally wide loops. Cut along the side-seam to make two strips of fabric. Fold the strips, right sides facing, and sew a seam down the length. Turn the strip inside out and fold the rough ends in, sew a seam to secure. Iron flat.
7. Attach the straps to the bag. Because the lining is already attached, I usually just sew them to the inside of the bag, with a square of stitching to secure them in place.
Ta-da! You're done!
For this bag, I used a skirt I bought for $1.69 from the Salvation Army. It was fully lined and had these cool little pockets on the front that made really cute pockets for the bag. I also used the collar from the kids shirt I took the motif from to make the stripe detail on the handles (I just ripped the stitches joining the collar to the shirt, cut the collar in half lengthwise and at the seam to make two strips.). You can't really tell from this photo, but I used a contrasting robins-egg blue thread throughout the bag and I found this fabulous button to match (also from Salvation Army!). The orange loop for the button was just leftover fabric from the t-shirt.

I also made a little "gratitude wrap" to go with this gift. It is just a little fabric pouch with pockets for cards, envelopes and stamps so you can keep all your "thank-you" supplies in one place. I got the idea from the fabulous Soule Mama website. I tried to follow her VERY SIMPLE PDF instructions but went HORRIBLY wrong!! Seriously...

I was thoroughly disgusted with myself but Mr Joyful made me pounce right back on that horse and try again. I'm glad he made me! The second time, I didn't bother with the batting in the middle and I changed the construction and fastenings... just kinda made it my own and I was much happier with the results!

I even used the leftover scraps from the pockets to make matching cards.

Finally, just to give all the gifts a little touch of eco-chic, I also made furoshiki fabric wraps to wrap up the gifts. I had read about them online somewhere and I thought they were a great idea... squares of fabric that you use as gift wrap but unlike paper, they can be used over and over for years to come. So I made a furoshiki for each gift and included a little write-up on what they were and how they could be tied.

The larger, black and silver square was made from a scarf I found at a garage sale. I lined it with some leftover black fabric to give it a little more weight so it could be re-used more (it was quite delicate otherwise). The beige fabric started life as fabric that I used to make a dress. The dress was horrible, so I re-used the fabric to make cushion covers, but they were too slippy on our leather sofas so here it is again... and it's perfect for the furoshiki!

I had a lot of fun crafting each of these gifts (and wraps!). They were all made mainly from recycled or re-purposed materials and they were unique... you definitely can't find this kind of stuff in the mall! We had an amazing time at the party... those people are a lot of fun to hang out with - a really great bunch of people. I am blessed indeed!

You know you're on the computer too much when...

2008-12-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

So Google's "Gmail" has a funky new feature where the design in the background of the mail screen changes according to what the weather is like where you are. It's pretty cool 'cause it updates automatically throughout the day.

BUT... I can tell I'm spending too much time on the computer when I notice that the screen has changed to rain and I then look out the window and think "well, look at that, it is raining". The worst part is that my computer is FACING the window! I have to move my eyeball a fraction of an inch and I can see outside! What is the world coming to when I get weather "news" quicker on my computer than through my own window?!

In my defense, I was trying to find flights online... a HORRIBLE, ONEROUS task!! But still... :(

Oh Canada...

2008-11-13T15:57:00.000-08:00

It is difficult to make it through the mall without a trip to the toy store for the kids to play with the Thomas set. Yes... they have their own train set at home, but there's something about the one in the store that is irresistible to them.

As I have pretty strict standards for the type of toys I let the boys have, I am rarely enticed by the toy-store offerings. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a wonderful new line of toys by Sprig Toys (www.sprigtoys.com). The toys are eco friendly and encourage active play (yipee!!). They're very cool - made from recycled plastic (mainly milk cartons) and wood shavings. And get this, the wood shavings are from our very own BC pines and the toys are manufactured in Canada!! Amazing! They even smell piney! They contain no paint - so we don't have to worry about those troublesome toxins sneaking in there. I am just so delighted to find such a conscientious product.

The toys themselves are a range of vehicles with little people that fit inside. The little dudes have headlamps which are powered when your child pumps the vehicle. There is also a big "rig" that the little people fit into and when the person is in the rig, it tells stories and has music. The great thing is there are no batteries (can I get a hallelujah from the choir?!!) and the kids actually have to run around and get the toys moving to generate enough power for the lights and sounds to work. That's what I like - a bit of bribery to motivate physical activity! I am certain that my boys will love these, but I also think girls would like 'em too. Because they have the little people, they're kinda doll-esque and I think girls will enjoy the people-mimicking side of them... but that's just my guess.

Anyway, I am just delighted to find a toy that encourages active and creative play, is eco-friendly and is made in Canada - bonus, bonus, bonus!! The grandparents were anxious to get the kids some form of chunky vehicles for Christmas and I am happy that these fit the bill. Sprig toys also has a line of eco-friendly diggers (I spotted them on the website but have yet to see them in "real-life" so I'm not sure what they're like).

So kudos to Sprig toys... hopefully more manufacturers will be following suite!

Where did the time go?

2008-10-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that the summer has flown by already. It seems that I only posted twice in the entire summer! Oh well...there are better things to do in the summer than read (or, apparently, write) blogs anyway :)

I have been trying to decide how to proceed with my Master's degree... whether to start it now and do distance, or wait a while and try to do it in-class, or do half and half... it's so complicated! I think I have decided to wait and do it in class. I could do part of it distance and start in January, but it is expensive and we have lots of other things we're saving towards right now.

So instead, I have contented myself with ordering books on the subject and I am beginning to read as much as I can in preparation for starting my program.

So, the first set of books I ordered were "Public Power in an Age of Empire" by Arundhati Roy, "Ethnic Conflict" by Stefan Wolff and "Direct Action and Democracy Today" by April Carter. These are books that are either required reading for some peace-studies courses, or they are written by profs at some of the universities I'm considering for my Master's. I am also working through a whole pile of articles online at the University of Coventry - they have a whole section of articles written by department personnel that you can download for free - so that's a great resource.

Even though Peace Studies is a relatively small field (compared to something like Business Studies or English), there is still a wealth of reading material available and it is difficult to know where to focus my energies. I have been able to download curricula from some peace studies courses, so I have taken the books mentioned in the curricula as "required reading" and added them to my list of books to read. But these are not the actual classes that I will be taking so I'm not sure how relevant they'll be. I contacted some department heads at some of the universities I am interested in and explained that I will be starting my program in a year or two and would like to begin reading ahead. I asked them for recommendations and was pretty discouraged by the response. I understand that they are very busy, but I thought they could have passed the assignment onto an intern or staff assistant, or just forwarded me the curricula from a basic intro-course. It doesn't even make good business sense for them... if they snag me now, they're guaranteed potentially $20,000 of my money... surely that prospect is worth a few minutes of effort... but apparently not.

OK, so yet again, my blog turns into a rant... but the good news is that I have at least found some books to start me off and I am thoroughly enjoying them (although I'm not sure that "enjoy" is the right word when you're reading about genocide and ethnic cleansing). It has given me lots to think about already and the more I read, the more excited I get about the future and the practical implications of this course of study.

An inspiring read!

2008-08-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

We were searching for a birthday present for my nephew yesterday at the bookstore and I stumbled upon this wonderful children's Bible. To be honest, I actually only picked it up because I thought it was a bit hokey. It is entitled "The Jesus Storybook Bible". I rolled my eyes as I reached for it, thinking that it was yet another marketing ploy and probably a poorly executed one at that. What will there be next, a God-The-Father Bible and then a compendium Holy-Spirit edition... no, wait, that already exists!! Anyway, I thought it was going to be a badly written, out-of-context, bible story book full of cheese!
I couldn't have been more wrong! It is a beautiful book - excellently written with feeling and sincerity. The premise behind it is that there are echoes of Christ throughout the whole Bible, so this is a kids bible that aims to show how Jesus is for-shadowed throughout the whole Bible and how the Bible works together as a whole to tell a bigger story of redemption and God's unfailing love for His creation. In the middle of the bookstore, I flipped it open to the end of the creation account and found myself welling up as I read! Here's an extract:

"God looked at everything he had made. 'Perfect!' he said. And it was.
But all the stars and the mountains and oceans and galaxies and everything were nothing compared to how much God loved his children. He would move heaven and earth to be near them. Always. Whatever happened, whatever it cost him, he would always love them.
And so it was that the wonderful love story began..."

Lloyd-Jones brings out some interesting historical contextual information in the stories. Because it is a story-book version of the bible, rather than a translation or paraphrase, she is able to use the original images of the biblical text while explaining the meaning right in the telling of the story. See this example from the Noah's Ark story:

"And the first thing God did was make another promise 'I won't ever destroy the earth again'. And like a warrior who puts away his bow and arrow at the end of a great battle, God said, 'See, I have hung up my bow in the clouds.' And there, in the clouds - just where the storm meets the sun - was a beautiful bow made of light. It was a new beginning in God's world. It wasn't long before everything went wrong again but God wasn't surprised, he knew this would happen. That's why, before the beginning of time, he had another plan - a better plan. A plan not to destroy the world, but to rescue it - a plan to one day send his own Son, the Rescuer. Go's strong anger against hate and sadness and death would come down once more - but not on his people, or his world. No, God's war bow was not pointing down at his people. It was pointing up, into the heart of heaven."

Wow! I don't think I can ever look at a rainbow again the same way!

I'm sure that the kids won't grasp all the depths of what is written here, but at least it attempts to explain the significance of the different bible stories and how they relate to Christ and therefore how they relate to our faith today. And it is not all heavy, deep thinking, there's plenty of funny parts and kid-friendly language too(she calls David the "teeny, weenie true king"!)

I am so excited to read this book myself... the hardest part is not getting all choked up when I read it to the kids!

Conflict of Interest?

2008-06-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I was only fair and proper to openly declare a conflict of interest on the Rio Rain front.

A few posts back I mentioned my delight at stumbling upon a new store: Rio Rain - in the Orchard Park Shopping Centre in Kelowna. It is chock full of sustainable clothing options but rather than repeat my gushing admonishments here, I will just refer you to my previous post.

Well, after perusing the Rio Rain website and visiting the store a couple times, I noticed that they were looking for sales associates in the Kelowna store. As I have been starting to make more serious plans about my Master's degree program, I have been considering finding some part-time work so that I can start to put money aside for my tuition and hopefully take a class in spring 2009. I only want to work when Mr Joyful is around, so the kids always have one of us with them, so that rules out most office work. When I realized that they were hiring at Rio Rain it seemed the perfect place to approach. I am already very passionate about the product and the store itself is a mere 12 minute bike ride from my house. The mall is open three evenings a week and weekends - so there's lots of opportunity for work when hubby dear is at home. So I applied and had an interview last week and it looks like they're gonna give me a try. I am so excited to be working somewhere that I respect so much. It is nice to labor with a clear conscience - knowing that ultimately we're working for good - to make the world a better place.

But, I did feel like due to my previous comments about the store, I should declare my "conflict of interest". I want to leave the previous post up there because I wrote it before I was a Rio Rain employee and actually the more I learn about the company from the "inside", the more strongly I feel those same sentiments. So there you go.

Dirty Hips!

2008-06-14T17:48:00.000-07:00

I think "Dirty Hips" would be a good name for a cook book or a recipe blog. My hips are always dirty when I'm enthralled in a recipe. I try hard to be a respectable chef and wipe my hands on a cloth, but I get excited and carried away and in the rush of creativity I inadvertently wipe my hands on my hips.

Tonight I made my first quiche and it was actually quite good. Here's what I did:

For the crust:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup oil
3 Tbsp ice-cold water
1/2 tsp salt

I mixed all three together, patted into the pie plate and baked it while I prepped/mixed the rest of the ingredients (maybe 10-15 mins).

For the filling:
3 eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup soy milk
1/4-1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup kale, sliced
1/4-1/2 cup chopped tomato (I used baby plum tomatoes and quartered them)
2 tbsp chives, chopped (next time I'd use a small onion and saute it with the mushrooms)
1-2 tsp salt
pepper

I whisked the eggs, mayo, milk, nutritional yeast and flour. Then rinsed and chopped the veggies. I sauted the mushrooms in a little olive oil seasoned with sea salt and ground pepper. I added the tomatoes to the mushrooms when they were nicely browned. I cooked the tomato for a few minutes until they started to break down a little then I added the kale and cooked until it wilted. I mixed the veggies in with the egg mixture and poured it into the crust.
I put it all back in the oven for about 20-25 mins on 375.
The nutritional yeast flakes add a hint of cheesy flavor. It was light and tasty and the kids gobbled it down - even the notoriously fussy Caleb!

The hippy train comes full circle!

2008-06-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a lot more research recently into different Master's programs - trying to figure out what the heck I want to do with my life! And I have been leaning heavily towards conflict management. The irony of me being a hippy in training and then pursuing "peace studies" had actually escaped me until now. Funny, but true...

It's just perfect really! But seriously, I have been struggling a lot with what direction I should go in for my Master's. Originally I was going to pursue more theology - perhaps do a linguistics concentration so I could teach Greek and Hebrew, perhaps take straight theology, or maybe do a missiology focus. But the more I read, the more I grew passionate about development issues... sparked in no small part by the wonderful book "Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crisis" So I started looking into International Development programs, but that didn't seem like a perfect fit for me either. There was a lot I liked about it, but there was also a lot I really wasn't interested in and I don't like the idea of spending the time, money and energy on courses I'm not totally sold out on.

Feeling at somewhat of a loss, I contacted Mennonite Central Committee. They are so active in the world of development and I really respect their ethos and expertise. Wherever there is a need in the world, they're there just to love and support people and they do excellent work. I shared a little of my background, vision and gifts in an email and I got a phone call shortly after from my MCC rep in BC and we had a wonderful, inspiring conversation. In my correspondence with MCC, I'd asked if there was any particular area of need that they were seeing was under-staffed - were there any essential skills that people seemed to be lacking, or areas where a particular type of education would be useful but where there weren't many people available. I just wanted to see what the areas of need were and what they saw as being priorities in the development world. We had a great conversation and the rep was very encouraging - she suggested that an area that may fit well with my gifts and my passions was the area of peace-building and conflict resolution. She explained that in many, many parts of the developing world communities are struggling to heal the wounds of civil war and strife. She explained that in such cases, before any kind of development work can happen, there first needs to be reconciliation and healing in the community, so that the community can come together to re-build. If the development work happens without this vital component, then it often is thwarted by internal conflict and rivalries and the community is not able to advance the way they should. I was truly inspired by our conversation. The rep was humble enough to say that she kind of felt like God was prompting her to share that with me and I felt a similar "divine intervention". So I began researching various Master's level peace-building programs. In a perfect world, I would ideally love to go to Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia and take their Development track in the Conflict Transformation MA. However, being from Canada, hubby dear would not be able to work down there and I'd have to study full time, which would mean that we'd have to save up all the money first and then take all the classes at once. I had hoped to start soon and finance the degree as I go along. EMU have some amazing courses and thankfully they have a summer institute which hopefully one day I may be able to be a part of, even if its just to audit some courses. But through EMU's wonderful website, I found some other programs in the same field (they are kind enough to list other institutions offering similar programs right on the EMU website!). I discovered that California State University offers a Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding MA entirely online. They have some really cool development-related electives and their tuition fees are really reasonable. It is exciting to think that I could start taking Master's level classes as early as next spring. As much as I think in-class learning is always the best and I would love to take a couple years out to devote to a traditional learning environment, in practice, it is hard to uproot the kids and the hubby, to leave our wonderful landlords and our church and job and relocate - not to mention, incredibly expensive! I would like the freedom of doing as many or as few classes as I want to and being able to study when it suits the kids best. So I am really excited about this development. I read through some of the sylabi online at EMU and have got a hold of some text-books from the library so that I can read more about this discipline and determine if it is for sure the direction I want to take. These are exciting times though... watch this space!

World Shopper

2008-06-03T14:10:00.001-07:00

Oh My Goodness!!! I have been blogging a lot today - but exciting things are happening! remember a few posts back I blogged about a British ethical shopping guide called "ethiscore" and I lamented the lack of a North American alternative... well it appears that, as is often the case, I was mistaken! There is indeed a North American version and it is fabulous and the essential information is FREE!! GO RIGHT NOW TO www.betterworldshopper.com for more details! They have lists of different product categories, from consumerables to banks, and they give a letter grade to various companies - empowering the consumer to choose the most responsible company within the category. Excellent, excellent - I have added it to my links bar on my internet portal so I can access it easily any time! It is so good to see the world slowly becoming a better place.

Type rest of the post here

Carrots help you see in the dark!

2008-06-03T13:00:00.001-07:00

Hubby and I watched "The Corporation" a couple weeks ago. It was very interesting and echoed a lot of what I have been reading about recently. I am glad that there's a widely accessible format for this information. Anyway, while perusing the movie's website, we came across "Carrot Mob" - in ingenious idea for how to enact positive change with the power of our consumer dollars.

The basic premise of the movement is that we can encourage businesses to change their practices for the better by pooling our consumer dollars and shopping at the store that makes the most positive changes. The trial that was done in California involved a bunch of local liquor stores. The Carrot Mob crew went to each store - all within a few blocks of each other - and offered their business to the store who would undertake the most energy-saving initiatives in their store. One store bid to reduce their energy consumption by a certain percentage, the next store bid more and so on. Finally the store who pledged to make the most changes to their energy consumption won. They made the changes and then the whole "carrot mob" crew got together one Saturday and had a mass shopping spree at the store. The store did well out of it because they got a bunch of business on that day, plus people continued to support it as they knew it was better than the alternatives and it also gave them added publicity. It is an interesting concept. There are some flaws: just because a business can't make as many improvements doesn't mean that it is worse... it may have been better to start off with and therefore have fewer potential improvements to make. But then at least the worst ofenders are cleaning up their acts... it is encouraging change where it needs to happen. Overall, I think the premise is sound and it has great potential. I particularly like the fact that it is a positive approach to activism. Rather than attacking those who are doing it badly, simply make them irrelevant by focusing on those who are doing better. I have been reading a lot about conflict resolution, particularly on national levels, and one theme that recurs is how communities have chosen to create alternative systems of government and society in the midst of dictatorships and oppressive regimes. They have no choice but to live in the shadow of the regime, but rather than fight it physically, they instead create alternatives to it so that in the end it is merely an empty shell and the real life happens in the society the people have created. I see the implication of this in the fight against the corporations. The very nature of a corporation sets it at odds with the greater good of the people. Rather than trying to force corporations to be more ethical, to essentially become something they cannot be, perhaps we should be just ignoring them and focusing our energies on companies who are willing to change or who are already actively engaged in socially and environmentally responsible practices. If enough people took this stance, the corporations would be forced to adapt or collapse... either one would be a satisfactory outcome for the citizens of the world. OK... I'm no Cesar Chavez so I'll get down from my soapbox, but I do live in wine country and I do love to see equality in action!

Blood, Sweat and T-shirts

2008-06-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

I have actually been doing really good on my commitment to buy eco-friendly clothing recently. Well, it has helped that we've had no money, so I've not been buying anything! But I have also taken advantage of the wonderful second-hand and consignment stores in Kelowna - I got some sweet summer stuff about a month ago. Then I discovered the amazing world of Rio Rain in the mall, so I'm excited to try more when I have a little disposable income. My wonderful Momma was on the phone today and she mentioned a TV show they've had over in the UK, "Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts", that has taken an in-depth look at the fashion industry, particularly the production of clothing.

The Threads website has a bunch of videos from the show. I found the "Green is the New Black" video particularly helpful as it encapsulates the major issues with unethically produced clothes. You can watch the video at www.bbc.co.uk/thread/video
Mum said the show ought to be compulsory viewing for all churches! I think it should be compulsory for everyone who doesn't already buy 100% fair trade. Just where do people think we get these cheap clothes from anyway? It is so easy to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that we don't know, but the bottom line is that if you can pick up a T-shirt for $5, then someone, somewhere is loosing out on a lot of money, and if you think it is the oh-so-generous executives at the "Gop" or "American Seagull" you'd better think again!

Let it Rain!!

2008-06-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

Oh joy, oh rapture! As I was innocently walking through the mall the other day in pursuit of a charger for our cell phone, I happened upon a most beautiful discovery: a new store called Rio Rain - Eco-apparel. Well, imagine my delight when I walked through the store to discover that it is PACKED with 100% sustainable clothing. And what's more, its actually nice stuff!

I seriously had a lump in my throat... finally my isolation in the dessert of Cotton Ginny is over! There is an alternative - and a darned fine one at that!! I am so incredibly excited that this store is in the Kelowna mall! They also have one store in Vancouver but I feel pretty blessed that we have one here too. OK, so some details: the clothes are funky urban chic - not the usual hippy-frump. They have a range of different fabrics, from 100% organic cotton and bamboo to fabrics made out of old pop bottles and re-cycled cotton. The store itself is furnished in reclaimed wood and they boast energy efficient lighting. They give 1% of profits to environmental causes ("1% for the planet") and they are in the process of having their entire line audited to certify their environmentally sustainable production practices - even down to the notions! (their fabrics are already certified.) They also have a fair trade transparency policy - they are certified as socially compliant and anyone can inspect their documentation. Overall, pretty impressive - especially in comparison to the alternatives! Even my darling husband was impressed - and it takes a lot to get him excited about a clothing store!! And you know what, the clothes are actually pretty decently priced too - especially when you consider that they are hand made (partly in Vancouver!). A lot of the eco-responsible clothing out there is pretty pricey - particularly those lines which are less hippy and more contemporary, so it is impressive to see Rio Rain trying to reach a larger audience rather than trying to make as much money as possible. They actually have a goal of reforming the industry - being an example to other clothing suppliers. I was listening to a podcast on HappyFrog.ca about the company and heard a little bit from its founder, Mark. He started the company after being in the clothing industry for a number of years. When his daughter, Rio Rain, was born he had sort of an epiphany that he wanted the world to be a better place for her and he realized that the industry he was a part of was a huge part of the problem (he mentioned that 25% of the chemicals produced in the world are for use in the clothing industry!). So he started Rio Rain in order to be a part of the solution. That's an inspiring story and I am excited to have this store as a shopping option.

Mmmmmm... Nshima!

2008-05-23T15:29:00.000-07:00

We ate nshima and relish for supper the other night - DELICIOUS! It reminded me of Zambia so bad! It was another wonderful recipe from my global cookbook. I have intended to make nshima pretty much since I got back from Africa, so that Cory could try this Zambian staple. I finally got a chance to make it when I found the recipe for relish in my book. It was just like I remembered - and also super, super quick and easy to make... this may become a regular menu item for us - especially for those busy nights when we are trying to throw something together at the last minute. It is nice to be able to whip up something from fresh, local veggies that is filling but not full of junk. The kids (Asher and Mr Joyful!) had fun eating with their hands!

In a nutshell

2008-05-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

I just received the latest copy of World Vision Canada's "World View" publication and was so happy to read the message from the president. It summed up so well the reasons I personally am passionate about the environment. It effectively answers the criticisms that Christian environmentalism is either earth-worship or an indulgence of the rich. I have quoted a few key passages here:

"The United Nations Development Program recently stated that developing countries and the impoverished people who live in them are the most vulnerable to climate change as natural disasters become more frequent, sinking them even deeper into poverty. Developed countries like Canada are home to just 15% of the world's population, yet generate almost half of the harmful carbon emissions that contribute to climate change [the number would be higher still if we took into account the emissions generated by developing countries who are producing products solely on behalf of the developed world]. Without action from wealthy countries, including Canada, the effects of climate change are likely to be devastating for rich and poor nations alike...
As a Christian, I am motivated to care for God's creation - not only because the Earth is an expression of God's creativity and we are called to be stewards - but also because the ongoing impact of environmental degradation will be devastating for many of God's children.
To respond to the threat of climate change, the developed world must rethink its economic model based on unfettered consumption that has proven environmentally unsustainable...
Instead of waiting for our leaders to act, we can take the first step by looking more closely at how our choices and habits can contribute to climate change..."
Dave Toycen, President of World Vision Canada in World View, pg4, World Vision, Summer 2008

Gado-gado

2008-04-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

For my birthday this year I received a wonderful cookbook from a very dear friend. It was from Ten Thousand Villages, one of my favorite stores! And it is called "The World in your Kitchen" by Troth Wells and it is a collection of vegetarian recipes from around the world along with facts about the countries and beautiful pictures. Last night I made Gado-gado - a Malaysian dish that was simple to make but DELICIOUS!

In the forward to the book, Glenda Jackson writes: "Of course, the majority of the world's mothers worry not about balanced diets for their daughters and sons but whether they can provide them simply wit enough food. And not because their children are picky eaters or voraciously greedy, but because poverty, individual and nationl, is the only life they have ever known. And unless the rich world begins to take less of the world's resoruces and give more to the developing world in aid and practical know-how, without strings, poverty is all the majority of our fellow human beings will ever know... one thrid of the world is using 80 percent of the resources while two thirds of the world is trying desperately to survive on the remaining 20 percent..."

Part of the reasoning behind the book being vegetarian is that although people in developing countries eat meat (and thoroughly enjoy it whenever they can get it!), it is generally reserved for feats or special occasions. In fact, the book goes on to explain that "if 35% of [the world's] calories came from animal products - as in North America now - then the world would only be able to sustain 2.5 billion people. But if everyone became vegetarian and the food was equally distributed, the world could support at least six billion people." Now, its not as simple as all that - we know that there are places where the land is so poor, it can only sustain cattle and we know that vegetables rot and cannot always be transported to where they are needed most. But, when you think that "worldwide, a third of the world's grain is grown for livestock and in the US some 90% of the corn, oats and barley goes down animal gullets" (p13) while millions starve for want of those same simple grains, you have to ask yourself whether we have our priorities right.

As we discovered last night, we can still eat a delicious, nutritious and protein rich meal without any meat whatsoever and if more of us first-worlders did this on a consistent basis, maybe we could begin to redistribute the wealth of the world's produce. Vegetarian food is often much cheaper than meat, freeing up room in our budgets to give financially to organizations that are trying to make a positive difference in the developing world.

OK, lecture over, here's the recipe in the hope that you will try it yourself and then buy the book! Incidentally, I did not have to stray to far from my local-sourcing commitment wit this recipe. I had the majority of the ingredients available locally, or I made simple substitutions!

Gado-gado
Serves 6

1 cup tofu, sliced
1 cup bean sprouts (I used garlic sprouts... skinnier, but local!)
1 cup mangetout/snowpeas or other green beans, sliced into 1" lengths
1 potato sliced and cooked (I put the slices on a baking sheet and baked at 375 degrees while the rest of it was cooking)
6" cucumber, grated or cut into fine sticks
1 cup cabbage, shredded
1 cup lettuce, cut finely (lettuce isn't ready here yet, s I omitted this but used two potatoes instead)
3 eggs, hardboiled and sliced
oil

For the Sauce
2 cups peanuts, roasted and ground (or 1/2 cup peanut butter) [we can't have peanuts because of the boy's allergies, so I used 1/2 cups of tahini (sesame seed paste) instead]
1 stalk lemmon grass or 1tsp lemon juice
2 chillies, sliced finely (OK, we're wimps and omitted the chillis... the kids aren't too keen on spicy food yet)
1 clove garlic, crushed
5 shallots, chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 cup coconut milk
salt

1. Heat oil and fry tofu until golden. Drain on paper towel and set aside.
2. Steam sprouts, mangetout/snowpeas/beans and cabbage until just done.
3. Arrange veggies together with potato, cucumber, lettuce and hardboiled eggs decoratively on a serving dish, leaving room in the center for a bowl containing the peanut sauce.
4. Pound or blend lemon grass/juice with the chillies, garlic and shallots.
5. Heat some oil in a wok or frying pan and gently saute these ingredients for 2 mins. Add the sugar, salt, lemon/lime juice and coconut milk. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.
6. When this is ready, spoon in the ground peanuts or peanut butter to make a thick sauce. Adjust to taste by adding more lemon juice, salt, sugar or coconut milk as liked. To serve, take a mixture of vegetables and spoon hot sauce over.

Ha ha ha... so looking at all the substitutions I made, our meal last night probably tasted nothing like the original, but it was still delicious!

Enjoy!

Happy Earth Day!!

2008-04-22T23:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a copy of a post I put on our cohousing discussion group in response to the question "What are you doing for Earth Day?" Just a quick recap of some of our priorities.

Happy earth day, everyone!!

Well, we have been doing a whole lot recently. We switched to cloth bags at the store, we buy pretty much all local, organic produce (thank you Urban Harvest - and wonderful Garth, who packed and delivered our order this week!!!) and meat (Vale farms). I just got a bike and we got a trailer for the kids, so once our youngest turns one year, I plan to just use the bike and trailer when I need transport during the day, instead of driving Cory to work so I can have the car and then having to pick him back up again. We also switched to natural shampoos (like mud and vinegar... for real... I know, you guys that met us on Saturday... explains a lot eh??!!) and cleaning supplies in our house. We switched to fair trade sugar and chocolate (thank you Ten Thousand Villages... I LOVE that store!!) I have also made a commitment to only buy organic clothing for myself. It is HARD, but so far, so good (its been about 6 months).

Hmmm... let me see... my main commitment for earth day is the bike though... I am going to try really hard to only use the car for journeys over 10kms or where we have a really tight time crunch.

Have a good night y'all and remember to unplug that computer!!
Joy

Ethical Economics Tools

2008-03-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of purchasing bicycles for myself and Asher and a trailer for the kids to ride in so that we can bike as a family. As I was researching ethical brands of bikes, I stumbled upon two very useful websites. One is the ethiscore website, which has a variety of consumer reports on different categories of goods (soft drinks, bikes, cell phones, sportswear, margarine, etc. etc.) and the corporate critic website which lists the ethiscore of top businesses.

So using the bikes as an example, on the ethiscore website, you select the report on bikes and it lists various brands of bikes, along with an "ethiscore" - a score out of 15. They work out the ethiscore by giving each brand a score of 15 and subtracting one point for every infraction. The criteria are varied between environmental, social and animal welfare causes. You can actually specify which issues are more important to you and the program will adjust the ethiscore accordingly to reflect your personal convictions. For example, if you feel very strongly about the environment, but are not as concerned with animal testing, you can select those issues and the ethiscore will reflect your preferences and list brands with environmental misdemeanors lower on the list than those with animal welfare issues.

I found the ethiscore very helpful for illuminating the ethics behind various companies and in the end it was much easier to look on the ethiscore page than contact every company individually. The ethiscore gives you a breakdown of each brand's score, so you can see what elements have affected their ratings. The criteria range from operating in a tax haven, to manufacturing in oppressive regimes, to animal cruelty, to environmental responsibility reporting.

So many corporations operate under the radar of common public opinion. We hear every now and again of the big problems with companies like Nike and Dow, but unless it is splashed all over the news headlines, we don't think any further about their competitors, who are likely engaged in the same shady practices but have escaped the limelight. The ethiscore gives us a chance to see which brands are endeavoring to be better and gives us an opportunity to encourage better corporate responsibility by diverting our spending dollars away from questionable companies and toward those who are less damaging to the earth and its people in their practices.

The downside with the ethiscore is that it is a paid service - you buy a one year subscription. I understand why they do this - they have researchers working constantly to keep the database up to date, but sadly the reality is that most consumers don't care enough to pay. It would be so much better if the information was available for free to all. There are a number of free reports, so that is helpful. But the majority are in the subscribers only section.

The other downside for me in Canada is that the ethiscore is administered in the UK and so lists mainly British companies. They are constantly updating the system and including more companies, but as yet it is not as comprehensive. However, many of the major corporations operate in the UK, US and Canada, so there is some correlation.

The other useful website I came across was Corporate Critic. It is connected with the ethiscore and lists many, many corporations and their ethiscore. It also has a number of reports for each score highlighting which elements of their business were criticized. Again, this is a paid service, BUT, the ethiscore of each company is available free of charge (you just have to pay to read the reports). So, if you don't want to pay for either the ethiscore or the Corporate Critic, you can just find out the corporation behind the product you are considering purchasing and look up their ethiscore. I found that the Corporate Critic was a little easier to use than the ethiscore from Canada becasue many of the corporations are the same. For example, it really helped in the decision regarding a bike trailer as I found the corporate names behind some of the different brand alternatives and I was able to look them up on the Corporate Critic A-Z site and see how each compared. There were no details but just being able to compare the ethiscore gave me a good idea of which companies to avoid and which were better choices.

Birthday Extravaganza!

2008-03-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Asher turned three today! He has had quite the week of celebration as he managed to extend his birthday over four days! He had his party on board the Kettle Valley Railway's Easter train on Saturday, it was Easter on Sunday so we spent the afternoon with family and he opened gifts and cards there. Then Mr Joyful was off work on Monday so we spent the day together and had a TON of fun and finally the 25th was his official birthday! I tried hard to be as intentional as possible about the gifts and treats and in the end we did not so bad.

We had originally planned a little birthday party for Asher at our place, but then we found out that a couple of his friends would be away over spring break, so they'd miss it. When I asked Asher what he wanted to do for his birthday he said that he wanted to go on a "real" train. We had already established that he would have a train birthday cake, but now he clarified that he wanted to go on a real train, on the train tracks, not on the cake! So I scrambled to try to find a train somewhere nearby. As it turned out, the Kettle Valley Railway was having their Easter train on the Saturday before Asher's birthday so that would be perfect. We invited a couple of his little buddies and their parents and that was that.

I had already ordered some Thomas bubbles, conductors hats and wooden train whistles for the goody bags, but when I realized that there would only be Asher and two other kids, I went to Ten Thousand Villages and bought them each a shaker and a hand drum (and bells for Asher). This was inspired by the kids, who have been bringing musical instruments to church to play during the worship time. I also picked up some fair-trade chocolate (little individually wrapped squares) and a bag of mixed dried fruit (also fair trade). I wrapped the fruit up in little wax-paper packages of four pieces and we took these as snacks on the train and to replace the candy the kids would get at the easter egg hunt (Which Asher and his buddy couldn't have because of their allergies). I put all the goodies in brown paper sandwich bags and then took a photo of Asher in his Thomas jacket holding his trains and I attached a photo to each bag. It was a nice and simple decoration.

For the cakes, I got little cupcake piks, which were very cheap and although they are made of plastic (which we're trying to avoid) they are reusable, so thats good. I also got reusable cupcake liners.
The day was absolutely amazing. The kids all had an awesome time and were mesmerized by the train. There was a live banjo player on-board, so we all had a good sing-along. The kids all fell asleep on the way home and when we got back to our place we had a picnic of home-made food - potato salad with our Urban Harvest organic potatoes, home-made hot cross buns, coloured boiled eggs, salad (the first of the year from Little Creek garden's unheated greenhouses!) with hand-mixed balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing, fresh homemade bread and homemade hummus and local organic apples. Of course, the cupcakes and butter icing were also homemade, but the food colouring was far from organic... we're still working out our salvation with fear and trembling!

Movies Galore!

2008-03-18T22:14:00.001-07:00

For my media-addicted friends... here are some short online movies relating to sustainability, economic and social justice and some websites that relate... enjoy!

The Meatrix - a set of three online movies (a parody of the Matrix trilogy) about the commercial meat industry... amusing in delivery but poignant in content. The website has tons of good links to further information (click on "international" and then "Canada" for a great list of Canadian resources)and if you really want to pursue it further, read The Omnivore's Dilema.

The Story of Stuff is a wonderful little educational movie about where the majority of our mass produced items come from and the logical implications that we may not have taken the time to consider. Annie Leonard is a little patronizing in her presentation style, but the information is easily understood and presented in a compelling manner.... get your older kids to watch it!

The Eat Well Guide is a great resource for local sustainable food choices - just type in your postcode and it lists local companies who provide sustainable food choices in your area (if you expand the search area to within 100km (roughly an hour's drive) of your postcode you'll be surprised how many options you have for local sustainable food. You will probably find that a lot of the businesses within 100kms of your postcode will either sell at farmers markets closer to you, or may have a delivery system in place for your location... so check them out.

Spuds in honor of St Paddy's!

2008-03-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

OK, so really this has nothing to do with St Patrick's day, but Irish people do eat a lot of potatoes, and I was just trying to find a title more enticing than "Potatoes"!

As a family we are trying hard to eat as much local produce as possible, both for the environmental implications (less gas guzzled in transportation), but also the socio-economic (so we can be sure that the farmers were paid a decent wage for their work). Its all well and good in principal, but in practice it leaves us with not much more than tubers in February and March. So Potatoes have been a staple at our house for the last couple of months. They are always available from local farms (via the Urban Harvest organic delivery that we get every week), so we have been getting them pretty regularly. I have fallen into somewhat of a routine over the winter season with some standard staple recipes. I rely on potatoes as a hearty accompaniment to pie or stew. So when I somehow overlooked my potatoes on last week's Urban Harvest order, I decided to grab a few from the store. Big mistake! I really hadn't noticed how spoiled we had been with the organic, local produce, but going back to Superstore produce after months of Urban Harvest was a shock to the system - and the taste buds! There were no organic potatoes to choose from , so I just grabbed what they had. I chose individual potatoes, rather than a large 10lb bag so I wouldn't be stuck with the remnants after Urban Harvest rescued me next week. I think this particular batch of potatoes was especially bad - they tasted awful - really almost unpalatable - I know, I have become a potato snob!! But they were really that bad - no matter how I cooked them they just tasted like dirt.

Anyway, this evening I was madly reading through the last few chapters of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (because it is due back at the library tomorrow) when I came across the following blurb on the humble potato:
"Because they grow underground, conventional potatoes are among the most pesticide-contaminated vegetables... conventionally grown potatoes are so contaminated, the Environmental Working Group warns parents not to feed them to infants and toddlers unless they're thoroughly peeled and boiled. This makes a strong case for buying organic potatoes from trustworthy growers who know the history of the land where their produce is raised." (p273). Yikes! Oh well, at least now I know. I guess it is common sense really that if it grows surrounded by the soil it will absorb more of the chemicals in said soil, but I just hadn't really spent that much time contemplating potatoes before!

I was delighted (and a tad relieved) to see my Urban Harvest bin brimming with potatoes this evening. Now I just have to figure out how to get back from Ashy's birthday train ride on Saturday in time to get to the Farmer's Market for local meat. The Kelowna Farmer's and Crafter's market is only on twice a month at the moment (through the winter), so we only have two opportunities to buy local, pasture-raised beef per month and I missed the last one, so I'd really like to make it there this week so we can have some red meat for a change. Although I did just get a fabulous vegetarian cookbook for my birthday, so that will carry us through if we don't make it back to town in time. Or I could take a little field trip out to the farm and buy direct... ahh, local produce!

Oh, and on a similarly positive note, our Urban Harvest bin was also brimming with three bags of salad greens!! It looks like we are trunign a corner and spring is just waiting to pounce! The salad greens come from Little Creek gardens on the Westside of Kelowna (who make FABULOUS dressings too btw!) and apparently they were able to produce greens this early with the help of some greenhouses (unheated) - its amazing how exciting the changing of the seasons becomes when you choose to eat in season... I have never been so excited about greens... nor so grateful for them - I stand in wonder and appreciation!

Economic Justice

2008-03-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

I went to our care group Bible study last night and it was a very interesting and challenging evening. The topic of the sermon was "In God We Trust" and it was based on Matthew 6:19-34. The conversation eventually came around to a discussion of James 5:1-6 - some very challenging verses on the issue of economic and social justice.

"Look here, you rich people, weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. Your wealth is rotting away, and your clothes are moth-eaten rags. Your gold and your silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh in hell. This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers who you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every whim. Now your hearts are nice and fat, ready for the slaughter. You have condemned and killed good people who had no power to defend themselves against you." James 5:1-6 (NLT)

The question in the study guide was:
James 5:1-6 is a sobering text when we consider our wealth as compared to the standard on the global scale [a member of our group pointed out that if you have a personal computer in your home, that automatically puts you within the top 1% of the world's population!] What responsibility do we have for economic justice on the global scale? What changes can we in our spending and earning that would benefit the world's poor?

The question is a very practical question and we discussed how difficult it is to live these verses out in a real way. Personally, I feel that God is calling us as Christians to a higher standard. We know somewhere in the back of our minds that some companies are not entirely ethical in the way that they go about their businesses, but we don't really know enough about it to make it change our shopping habits. I think the verse directly before the passage we read is very telling in this issue: "REMEMBER, IT IS A SIN TO KNOW WHAT YOU OUGHT TO DO AND THEN NOT DO IT" We may not be sure about where the products we buy come from, but that isn't really an excuse... especially in today's information-superhighway age - we have a lot of information at our fingertips, it just takes a little time to access it, but as the verse says, if we know that we really should do better but we just don't bother to put the effort in, its a sin. Anyway, I have been trying to collect some informaiton on better alternatives and here is a list of websites that may be helpful:

MEDA - Mennonite Economical Development Association. The website explains who they are and what they do and you can either make a donation online (similar to the World Vision gift catalogue, where you buy school supplies for $30 etc.), or you can "invest' by loaning a sum of money for a specific project.
www.meda.org

The eBay company that does something similar (that Frank was telling us about) is MicroPlace and this is their website:
www.microplace.com

Here is a website with a list of the "Most Wanted" corporate human rights violators - it has a list of companies who are known to be gross violators of human rights around the world, what they are accused of doing and which organizations are battling them:
http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/corporateHRviolators.html

So the companies listed on the previous website are some that we could consider avoiding. The folowing website is a directory list of ethical companies... so we may be able to find substitutes for the bad ones of this site! And it's Canadian!
http://www.ethicaldirectory.ca/index.php

Some stores that I personally know of that are trying to do better:

Cotton Ginny – they have a social responsibility code of conduct and a large line of Organic cotton clothing
MEC – (Mountain Equipment Co-op) - they have organic clothing, a social and environmental responsibility code of conduct and they recycle old plastic-based clothing into new fleece clothing etc.

Ten Thousand Villages - phenomenal for so many things - they have fair trade sugar, tea, cocoa, chocolate as well as paper, gifts, home furnishings, toys, music, books etc. etc. I did my entire Christmas shopping in the little store in Kelowna and I found some amazing (very appreciated) gifts. The fair trade coffee, tea and cocoa/sugar are obviously more expensive than the regular stuff in Superstore... but remember that at the end of the day, somebody is paying for the cheap product... maybe not us, but someone somewhere... actually having to buy the more expensive fair trade items means that we naturally eat less bad stuff (caffeine, sugar etc.!) - so it's sort of like a diet!! Also, they have a website and you can order things and have them shipped anywhere in Canada.

Thrift Stores - I know, I know - but sometimes its worth thinking about if we really need brand new all the time - for example, Mr Joyful now buys jeans for work from the thrift store because they just get wrecked at work anyway, so why buy brand new at three times the price? So even though most of you work in classy professions, maybe consider thrift stores for when you need painting clothes or just stuff for working out in your basement...??
A couple of others:
* Sage Creek Canada www.sagecreekcanada.com (organic and fair trade cotton clothing)
* No Sweat Apparel www.nosweatapparel.com (An American company, but click on Store Locations, and then Canada to find Canadian retailers)
* www.lululemon.com
* Coco International Artwear www.coco.ca

(More) Shopping Woes

2008-03-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

After my disappointment trying to find organic flowers/gifts, I have had another similarly frustrating morning today with clothing.

It is my birthday in a couple of days and I'm going out for dinner tonight with a couple of close girlfriends. I have a nasty habit of buying new clothes for a special event, but this time I was somewhat justified because I no longer fit into the majority of my clothes since loosing weight after Caleb was born. So I thought it would be OK to get a new shirt to wear tonight. Easier said than done. I have made a commitment to buy only organic clothing that is manufactured in a just way if at all possible. I have been trying very hard over the last few months to stick to this, and apart from a pair of nylons, I have not bought any clothing for myself that is not organic and from a trusted source. Now, it is that last part that is the tricky bit. Superstore actually has a very small line of organic clothing now, but when I contacted them to ask how they were able to offer organic clothing at such low prices, they responded that they don't break the law in the countries they manufacture these items. Hmmm... interesting response. So I took from that that they do not break the law, but do not really care how people are treated in the manufacturing of their clothing. That was dissapointing but predictable. I am glad that those acres of cotton fields are now pesticide free, but I am sorry that the change hasn't extended to looking after the workers who manufacture the goods.

So sadly, the nice, cheap, Superstore clothes are off-limits for me. So I have been shopping either online (which I don't love because of the shipping and the fact that I can't try things on), or at Cotton Ginny. Cotton Ginny now has quite a substantial selection of organic cotton clothing and they have a position on fair trade. I wouldn't say they were necessarily "fair trade", but they do try to respect the earth and its people in their business decisions. The only problem is that most of their clothes are for middle aged women. They have some nice basic pieces (t-shirts and jeans), but since I am also trying to not buy into the consumeristic culture of "I need that shirt in every colour", that doesn't help me much. They are lacking in the more stylish clothes and anything fancier than a casual outfit. So not really what I wanted for going out to dinner.

Even though I knew in the back of my mind that it would be futile, I decided to take a little walk around the mall to see if any of the other stores carried a line of organic clothing. It was seriously disappointing. Out of all those stores, there didn't appear to be any that had organic clothes. I may have missed some - but none were advertising organic clothing, and these days it seems everyone is hopping on the green bandwagon and if a store does carry organic products, they're only too eager to shout it from the rooftops.

In the end, I went back to Cotton Ginny and got a little pink shirt. It was nicer than a regular t-shirt and will look good with a few different pants/skirts I own, so it will get a lot of use through the spring/summer.

I just find it amazing that so few stores are getting with the program and going green. I really do believe that it is just a matter of time before more and more consumers start demanding this type of product. So I guess I am trying to do my part by spending my clothing dollars at a store that carries organic, even if the style is not exactly my preference. I have to say that I have a hard time justifying buying something fashionable from a regular store, knowing the human and earthly abuses that occurred to give me that product. I think we really need to look at our priorities. I love nice clothes, I really do, but at what cost? I have an easier time paying the cost myself than justifying someone else having to pay it for me.

Hopefully it won't be too long before we have more decent options for sustainable, ethical goods.

If any of you know if some quality organic retailers, or lines within regular stores, leave a comment and share the love!

Central Green Update

2008-03-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well, the Central Green forum was interesting. It was a nice chance to get to meet some of the other cohousing people. It was also interesting from a Metro perspective as the new development is going to be linked to downtown via a pedestrian overpass.

So the bottom line from my perspective is that it is still too early
to tell if this is going to be a good fit for the cohousing side of things. Part of me really loves the idea of being in Central Green, 1. because it is a great location, within walking distance of lots of things, 2. because it is a green and sustainable development so it too addresses some of our priority concerns, 3. I think it would be a great place to showcase the co-housing concept. There would obviously be set backs with sharing the space with non-cohousers, but the benefit of that would be that we would be seen less as a cult (as Alexis said!) and perhaps the concept would be mroe easily accessible and once people see it working in practice in a public place, they would be inspired to build more developments in this way... wouldn't it be awesome if there were 5 or 6 or 15 cohousing neighborhoods in Kelowna and if people started to see this as the new way of building communities? OK, big dreams, but you just never know!

One thing I found with my small group was that they were very open to
the idea of cohousing not only because of the sustainability and
affordable housing angles, but because of the community aspect. One of
the major concerns of the city and developers is that the downtown has
a lot of social problems and the idea of having a cohousing community
who are intentional about getting to know their neighbors and being
engaged with their surroundings appeals to a lot of people from a
safety and social transformation perspective. Of course, this is also a major plus for the Metro team. It seems that there may be space on the site for a Metro building, and it too could perhaps fit into the 20% category if there were apartments etc. Either way, it is exciting that this development is going in there because it is going to be close to Metro regardless.

One funny little unexpected consequence of this meeting is that I ended up on the front cover of our local free paper! I spoke to a reporter from the Kelowna Capital News at the forum. It was kinda funny how it worked out - during the small group time, I happened to be the only one with a pen and notepad at our group, so I was nominated as the record keeper. When it came time to feedback our small group material to the larger group, they chose me to do it because I had all the notes. So the reporter came to speak to me because I had mentioned a Living Machine in my presentation. She asked me a couple of questions about it and then asked what our table had suggested it. I told her it was me and she asked what area of expertise I had. I laughed and told her I was just a mom, so she asked how I knew about the Living Machine and I explained that I had read about them in a couple different books, Natural Capitalism being one of them. So she asked me how I had heard about the forum and I explained about the cohousing group. She called me a couple of days later to follow up with more questions and I thought maybe it would be a little paragraph stuffed in the middle of the paper somewhere, but then last night a friend called to say I was famous 'cause she'd just read all about me on the front page of the paper! Thankfully there was no picture and the reporter was very careful to quote me exactly.
So there you go... you just never know what might happen when you show up!

Kelowna CoHousing and the Central Green Project

2008-03-11T12:38:00.001-07:00

Tonight we're going to a city counsel meeting about a proposed development in Kelowna. It is called Central Green and will be situated on the corner of Richter and Harvey, on the old KSS site. It is a sustainable development with a proposed 20% affordable housing and the developers are keen to talk to the recently formed Kelowna CoHousing group about making some of that 20% a cohousing development. It is very exciting also as the new site is just across the highway from the Downtown core that we're working with at Willow Park Metro.

OK, so here's the skinny on the two different angles we're approaching this from:
Willow Park Metro is our church. Willow Park church is a big church here in Kelowna and it now has four "campuses" in different areas of the city. We have one senior pastor who does the majority of the preaching and each campus has its own campus pastor. The preaching is pretty much the same at three out of the four campuses - the senior Pastor rotates between the different campuses for the different services and those that don't get him in person, get him on video, so everyone hears the same message. The renegade campus is ours - Willow Park Metro, and we like to call ourselves a "community" rather than a "campus"! We get our own sermon, although it is the same subject matter as the rest of the church gets, but adapted for our location. Metro is right downtown and we have a lot of people from the streets or who have addictions who are a part of our community so the needs and experiences of our campus are somewhat different than the others. Right now we are meeting in Habitat - an arts and social venue but we are quickly out-growing the space and the building is only available to us on Sundays. We would like a 24/7 presence downtown and to have a place to have meetings mid-week and perhaps even some accommodation for those who are transitioning back into society after going through recovery. If we could incorporate a coffee shop or some other sort of "third space" for people to mingle and for community to form in a healthy way, that would be great too! The setbacks have been the fact that no-one downtown seems to want to sell buildings right now because there are rumors of a new developer coming in soon and paying big bucks to buy up available properties and the other set back is a lack of available land on which to build.

On the other side of it, Mr Joyful and I are also involved in the Kelowna CoHousing initiative. Very recently a few people started talking about the idea of have a cohousing community in Kelowna where the community would be designed with the intention of people getting to know their neighbors and being a safe place for kids to live and play. A by-product of that is that most of the people involved are also very interested in sustainable design - we would like our cohousing community to be as green as possible. The set backs have been the cost of real estate in Kelowna and finding available land.

So we are hoping to be at the meeting tonight to represent the cohousing group (along with a couple others from the group), but also to see what is going on in case it is something that Metro wants to partner with because it seems that Central Green would help with some of the key set backs we have experienced for both Metro and Cohousing. The city is looking at building a combination of residential and commercial units with a big park incorporated. There is a strong drive towards making it pedestrian and child friendly and having lots of "third space"es - patios and coffee shops etc. that will encourage a sense of community. So the city is already planning in line with some of the core values of the church and the cohousing group. It is a very exciting prospect - and especially as it is right around the corner from where we are currently living. Willow Park has a similar vision for the area they are located in in Rutland. If we were to build our new Metro site within Central Green, it would be an ideal location for many reasons. And it sounds like it would be a good location for the cohousing community also.

Either way, the meeting tonight should be interesting and informative...we'll see what happens!

Chocolate is SO last season!

2008-03-04T10:40:00.001-08:00

I have a new addition.... Carob Chips! Seriously... given the choice, I would rather eat carob chips than chocolate! OK, now those who know of my firm stance as a chocoholic may be fainting at the thought, but this is not really a good time to make the call because I am unable to eat real milk chocolate at the moment due to the kids allergies, so maybe my view is skewed. But I have to say that I am really loving the fruity, spicy goodness of carob yummies! And apparently Carob is infinitely superior to chocolate nutritionally. So its OK to eat a whole bag-full in a week. Maybe. OK, not really at all, but I can dream! That's all.

It started with a starter...

2008-03-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to cook as many things from scratch as possible... mainly just as an experiment to see how much it is possible to make these things from home... what exactly are we paying for when we buy things pre-made etc. But also because I like to be able to control the ingredients, especially because of the boy's allergy to dairy protein, but also because I want them to have the best, purest ingredients if at all possible.

I have so far discovered that Mayonnaise is INSANELY easy to make and it is much better for you when you make your own if only for the fact that when you make it yourself you become aware of just how much oil is involved and it makes you want to eat less... that was my experience anyway! I think partly it is also due to the fact that the store-bought mayo is so highly processed and not made with fresh eggs that it doesn't really break down like real fresh may does. The fresh stuff sort of looks oily when you leave it out of the fridge (like, the residue on the knife etc.). Anyway, it was an educational experience. But I am not sure that it is worth making my own may this time of year because it does take a little bit of time and it only keeps for a couple days. This time of year with no salad greens or potato salads to use it on, we don't need very much of it, so it is maybe not worth the time right now. I think I will endeavor to make my own through the summer though and hopefully I can perfect my recipes.

Anyway, we have also been making pretty much all of our bread at home. We started with the bread machine, but I also go quite a bit of practice making it by hand too. Asher loves to help and it is somewhat cathartic to knead the dough. So, I like to use as natural ingredients as possible - as un-processed as possible. (I threw the ingredients for a loaf into the bread machine last night and I said to Mr Joyful that it is quicker to do that than walk to the end of the block and buy a loaf from the Macs store!) In the bread recipe I knew the origins of all my ingredients except for the yeast. Then I read in The Omnivores Dilemma that it was entirely possible to harvest yeast from the air, to nurture it and eventually to use it to make bread. I was fascinated by the concept but presumed the work involved would be too time-consuming and beyond my meager culinary skills, not to mention non-existent agricultural skills... I'm no farmer! So I didn't think much about it until a friend from Metro gave me a Amish bread starter. I was mesmerized with the concept of tending to this little bag of gooey goodness until it was ready to deliver a beautiful loaf. However, though I was able to bring the bread to fruition, I was unable to partake in the goodness because the starter had milk in it :( So I set about trying to find a recipe for starter that didn't include milk. I found plenty - the vast majority of which called for yeast. Then whilst reading about starters in my Joy of Cooking I came across a recipe for natural starter where the yeast spores are harvested from the air and flour! Seeing the process mapped out in black and white convinced me that it was a challenging but not-too-daunting task and I decided to try it.

Success! It works and it is amazing! After three days of carefully "feeding" a flour/water mix (you feed it more flour and water) it bubbles up with the activity of live yeast and is ready to leaven a loaf or two of bread. I was thoroughly fascinated to watch the goo transform before my eyes and even more thrilled to watch my bread dough rising with the leavening action of just the yeast that was naturally present in the air and flour! Amazing, truly amazing! The only down side of it is that the recipe in JOC calls for twice-daily feeding and daily bakings in order to maintain the starter and the actual rise-time for a natural yeast dough is quite long (we're talking 12-14 hours, compared with 2-3 for a regular loaf), so you need to be organized a while ahead of when you want your loaf. You can put the starter in the fridge and just feed it once a week, but this involves straining off some sort of gray watery stuff which just sounded a bit gross to me, so I was too scared to try it. So sadly, I think I have killed my starter through neglect. But I will start another one again soon (the last one lived for over a month!). I discovered that I actually only needed to feed it once a day to maintain it and next time I will try the fridge method too. There is something very wholesome and peaceful about taking days to make a loaf of bread - a simple reminder in this crazy-hectic world that some things are worth waiting for.

The Water Clock!

2008-03-04T08:16:00.001-08:00

This is the most exciting gadget to enter our humble home in quite some time. Due to our convictions about consuming less, we have bought very few new things recently, and though our motives are pure, we still get a hankering for novelty. So we were kinda excited when we needed a new alarm clock (ours ceases to alarm us!). We have actually been doing OK without an alarm clock of the commercial variety thanks in great part to our dear children who consistently awaken us much sooner than we ever need to get up. However, the little darlings are actually being almost civil in sleeping until around 6:30am... OK, that only happened once so far... but we live in hope! As Cory needs to be up for work at around 5:30am, and since he has a new job that he does NOT want to be late for, we decided this was a good time to "splurge" on a new purchase. We wanted to stay within our mandate of buying environmentally and socially responsible items if at all possible, so I started to do my research to see if there is such a thing as an eco-alarm clock. Well, imagine my joy (no pun intended) when I discovered the "H2O Power" Multi-Function Alarm Clock! Yes, my friends, it runs on water! How SERIOUSLY cool is that??!! It actually comes with its own little AA shaped "battery" that you fill with water and slot into a regular-looking battery receptacle in the back of the clock. We were both a little skeptical as to its usefulness outside of a high-school science project, but it actually works!

And it just gets cooler... not only is it a regular clock with day, date, month and year displayed, but it also is an alarm, has a timer (for those 60 minute power-naps... yeah, right, like we've had one of those since college... as I said earlier, we live in hope!), and a thermometer. But get this: you don't press some button to switch between functions, you actually rotate the whole clock 90 degrees and it switches automatically! Who said loving the earth can't be fun?! Surely the water-clock proves that there's more to being eco-conscious than granola bars and hemp!

Riches

2008-02-28T19:01:00.000-08:00

I heard a radio advertisement for a "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" seminar this evening. The seminar will apparently help you "Create an individual strategy to become secure, comfortable, and rich"... I was reminded of the refreshing truth of the gospel as described in Jason Upton's song, Poverty:
"There's a power in poverty that breaks principalities
And brings the authority's down to their knees
There's a brewing frustration and ageless temptation
To fight for control by some manipulation

But the God of the kingdoms and the God of the Nations
The God of creation sends his revelation
Thru the homeless and penniless Jesus the son
The poor will inherit the Kingdom to come

Where will we turn when our world falls apart
And all of the treasures we've stored in our barns
Can't buy the Kingdom of God?
Who will we praise when we've praised all our lives
men who build Kingdoms and men who build fame
What will we fear when all that remains
Is God on His throne, with a child in his arms,
and love in his eyes
And the sound of his heart cries"

Caution: this medication may cause strong side-effects!

2008-02-27T21:37:00.000-08:00

Funny but true: my mom woke up in the night a few nights ago and the windows were rattling. She said it sounded like a huge train was going right past the house (there are no railways near my parent's home). So she got up and went to see what my Dad thought of it. He was in his usual position: fast asleep on the sofa with the television still on! She woke him up and told him what had happened - he, of course, had noticed nothing. He told her that it was all in her head - that she had dreamed it and that probably because she was on antibiotics they were making her have weird dreams! Mum thought that made made sense, so she trundled off to bed. When they got up in the morning they saw the news that the previous night Britain had had its worst earthquake in ten years - measuring a 4.8 on the Richter scale, with an epicenter less than 50 miles from my parent's house! Some antibiotics!!

Worst Mom in the World?

2008-02-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

I had one of those horrible "I'm a sucky mom" moments today with Caleb. A similar thing happened when Asher was about five months old. I had taken him into Regina for a mommy and me group and I had been somewhat frustrated with him because he was quite fussy all the way through and just wouldn't settle. When I decided to change his diaper before heading home I discovered the source of his frustration - he was in the same diaper he had been wearing the day before and it was totally poopy. I suddenly realized that the night before he had fallen asleep in my arms and I had just put him down in his clothes. The following morning I had to take Mr Joyful to work and so had transfered Asher right from the crib into his car seat.

Anyway, today was similar. Caleb woke up from his nap and was pretty grumpy and has been fussy all afternoon. Finally at 5:00pm when I was sitting the kids down for supper it dawned on me that I hadn't fed Caleb lunch today! He had a big snack at 11am and then we went for a walk. He fell asleep in the stroller and I just transfered him to the crib when we got home. By the time he woke up from his nap I had forgotten that he hadn't had lunch. No wonder the poor boy was whiny! Needless to say, he practically inhaled his supper!

Green gift-giving frustrations

2008-02-26T21:35:00.000-08:00

So the wonderful team at FGBI (now Eston College) just got word of their accreditation last week and I wanted to send them a big ol' bunch of flowers to congratulate them. However, knowing that most delivery-flowers are picked by slave children in south America (only a slight exaggeration), I wanted a more socially and environmentally conscious option. So I scoured the internet looking for Canadian eco-florists with either fare-trade or organic flowers and alas, there were none able to deliver to dear old SK. There are a couple of companies in Ontario who will deliver locally and there are several US websites what will deliver within the continental United States, but nothing (that I could find) servicing Saskatchewan. Boo hoo... so sad. But not really. I was sort of stuck on flowers because it is an easy generic gift, but it is such a horrible waste of fuel to send flowers half way around the world in the middle of winter. So I thought that a nice box of fair-trade chocolates would be a suitable (and perhaps superior) substitute. So I started searching and came up with a similar problem - lots of cute little chocolate makers in Ontario or Victoria etc. but none that would deliver. In the end I lost patience and went for a less glamorous but none-the-less trustworthy option. I ordered several fair-trade specialty chocolate bars from Ten Thousand Villages and had them shipped with a little note of congratulations. It is shocking how far behind Canada (and even the US too) is in terms of social justice. But things are changing rapidly and it is encouraging to see the emergence of more green and fair-trade businesses.

Strong Start

2008-02-26T15:54:00.000-08:00

We went to the "Strong Start" program for the first time today. I was nervous to go and didn't know what to expect but it was actually OK. I was stressed out trying to get there on time but we were actually the second group to arrive and some people came super late. I think maybe it is becasue it is drop-in. To me, drop-in means that you do not have to register. But I think to others it means that you can just drop in any time. Either way, it is nice to know that there is that flexibility built-in so if we are running behind we don't have to stress out and even if we are delayed we can still go. I think it may actually be better to go a little bit late because it was a long time for the kids - Caleb especially and Asher didn't want to leave until everyone else was going so if we came later we could leave at the end and it still not be too long for them.

It is a cool program though - there is free indoor play at the start, then a snack and then outside play. Then story time and a craft and more indoor play to finish. Asher was getting a bit hyper by the time the craft was done but he had so much fun. I was so proud of him - he was very confident but kind too. There was one boy in particular who would not share the cars and there was one that Asher especially wanted. Every now and again Asher would ask for the car and the boy said no and Asher just went about his business. Finally when the boy left right at the very end, Asher got to play for five minutes. He was so very patient.

Hemp Seeds

2008-02-26T15:45:00.000-08:00

Another rant about hyped-up green things! I ordered a hemp skirt from a Vancouver company last week and when it arrived, there were two sample packs of hemp seeds included. The enclosed promotional literature was almost comical in its extensive claims! According to the write-up, if you eat four to five heaped tablespoons of hemp seeds with a bowl of fruit and yogurt in the morning, you will not be hungry at lunch, and may even only be slightly hungry at three or four in the afternoon. Well, I tried this - I had a bowl of oatmeal (another option they recommend) and a banana and one of the sample packs (just under 5tbsp). I have to say it was better than no breakfast and I certainly wasn't starving at 10am, like I am most days when I just eat toast for breakfast, so that was good, but I was ready for lunch at noon. So it seems that the claims are a little exaggerated, although perhaps they are aiming them at older people who are less active. Both the days I tried them I walked for over an hour each morning, o perhaps I burned up my hemp fullness! They are super expensive though, so I don't think we'll be buying enough for 5 tbsp per day per person, but we may get them as a protein booster and the added bonus is that Asher likes the taste of them and they are easy to mix in foods.

Soap-nuts

2008-02-26T15:22:00.000-08:00

I had read about soap-nuts some time ago in a couple of different places. At the time they were only available through the US. I went to the website and emailed them to ask if soap-nuts were technically a tree nut - if so, we wouldn't be able to use them due to Cooper's peanut allergy. I didn't receive a response, so I had just assumed that they must be a nut and therefore inappropriate for us. Well, just a couple of weeks ago I came across a Canadian website. In the FAQs they explained that soap-nuts were actually a fruit, like a lychee, and therefore posed no threat to allergy sufferers. I was delighted to hear this and promptly ordered a pack and some extra bags because I couldn't tell from the website if they were included in the pack or not. There was one bag included, so I didn't need the extras after all. I have to say that I am not too impressed with them. I usually do my laundry in cold water, so that is how I tried them first. I followed the directions for a cold water wash and soaked the nuts in hot water before adding them (and the water) to the wash. It wasn't horrible - the clothes didn't smell at all, but they weren't exactly super-clean either. I would imagine that they would have been just as clean after washing with just water. I next tried the soap-nuts in warm water with the same result. I tried them with the warm water a few times and each time had the same result, regardless of how many soap-nut shells I put in. I then made a decoction with the used shells and some fresh ones and I have used this to wash dishes. It works fine, but again, I am not too sure how different it is from plain hot water and elbow grease! The dishes weren't greasy at all though, so it obviously helped cut the grease. I also tried it as a shampoo and it didn't really do anything - my hair was pretty gross after. So all around, I am quite disappointed. I think to be effective as a laundry detergent, you wold have to use a LOT of soap-nuts and that would be pretty expensive. For the time being I am going to stick with my soap flakes and borax.

No 'poo Update Feb 08

2008-02-26T15:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been five months since I stopped using shampoo and I have to say, it hasn't really been that bad. About two weeks ago I hennaed my hair for the first time and the couple of days after that were by far my best no 'poo days yet. My hair was just fabulous - lustrous and soft and finally free of grease and flakes.

Recently I have been relying on Bentonite Clay or castile soap and acv. I still feel like I am cheating with the castile soap, so I am trying to use it as little as possible but it is great at clearing up flakes and grease, even if it does leave my hair fairly dry. I have been rubbing a tiny bit of coconut oil onto the ends of my hair to lube it up a bit. The bottom line is that I desperately need a hair-cut to chop off all the dry, frazzled hair on the ends that was coloured (it is worse since henna). I think my hair is feeling clean enough that I can face a hair-dresser... so maybe in the next few weeks...

Plastic Nasty!

2007-09-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

So there was yet another news report about the dangers of plastics. I think it actually may have been this report that got me started on this green kick in the first place. There have also been a lot of news reports about Chinese products being contaminated with bad stuff. It has all made me really question how much stuff I have in the house that is toxic and has prompted me to reassess our lifestyle choices. So I thought the best place to start would be with the kids. I can't control everything they come into contact with, but I can at least try to make their home environment as healthy and safe as possible. So I have been in search of a non-leeching sippy cup for A. After lots of surfing research, it appears that my options are limited, but there do seem to be some possibilities:
a. Kleen Canteen - stainless steel, uses "non-leaching" Advent sippy cup attachment. Downside: not very well designed as a sippy cup (not economical, difficult for a toddler to tip up and drink from) and still has the child drinking through plastic.
b. Thermos Foogo sippy cup - stainless steel with non-leaching plastic spout and casing. Better design than Kleen Canteen but still has plastic.
c. Sigg water bottle - aluminum bottle with water-based non-leaching liner.
So, not sure which route we're going to take...

My no 'poo

2007-09-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

So, last Monday (17th), I began my no 'poo regime. After reading up a little on the subject, I did a Baking Soda (1tbsp) and water (1 cup) rinse. It was one of the weirdest feelings ever. My hair felt almost sticky. It was very tacky, like it was thick with grease and syrup - very, very strange. I had read that sometimes the apple cider vinegar makes your hair smell like vinegar and sometimes can make it greasier, so I didn't try that step yet. I was for sure in de-tox - my hair was a mess! It was like the baking soda had released this reservoir of damned up gunk that had been stored inside my scalp and all of a sudden it was all set free and it came flooding into my hair. YUK!! Need I say more? So over the next day and a half I read a lot more about no 'poo and found the natural family website which had a better step-by-step description of how to do the baking soda wash and I attempted it a second time. This time I used the same baking soda wash, but used warmer water, let the solution sit on my roots for a minute, did the whole scrubbing sequence they suggested on that website and rinsed really well. I also followed by a apple cider vinegar (2 tbsp) and water (1 cup) rinse just on the ends (I let it sit for about a minute) and rinsed that really well too (in cooler water). I did not get the nasty sticky feeling (although I do think a lot of that was the de-tox, especially as my hair had a lot of product in it the day I started no 'poo). I also did not smell like vinegar (although there are worse things to smell like... but thats another topic!) The amazing thing was that over the next few days my hair actually got better as the days went on, rather than worse. The curl got more defined, the hair was silkier and shinier (but not greasy). In fact, Saturday was my best hair day (four days after it was washed). By Sunday it started to get a little bit greasy around the part, so I did the routine again on Sunday night (tonight). Same as before, but I added one drop of lavender essential oil to the vinegar rinse. My hair is less coarse than last time (softer) and almost all the tackiness has gone. So we'll see...

No 'Poo

2007-09-23T19:49:00.001-07:00

OK, so for clarification, no... I am not constipated... no 'poo = no shampoo. Yup, hippy grease-monkey alert!! I got onto this idea when I was reading the "Green Parenting" blog and I have to say, it intrigued me! I feel all chemicaled-out right now - so, so many chemicals all around us and after several very public recalls of products where something had gone wrong with the chemical ingredients, I have been yearning for a more natural, simple lifestyle. I have heard of others in the past not washing their hair, but it always seemed very hippy and actually quite disgusting. I am a big fan of personal hygiene, so I wasn't so interested until I read Green Mama's description on Green Parenting and I realized that there is a way to eliminate shampoo but not hygiene! So I thought, what the heck? I'm a stay at home mom, if my hair is horrendous, my kids won't care, but if this works, then it will be sooo great financially and environmentally and also on a personal level. So, rather than re-hash the reasons and general techniques of no 'poo, I'll just refer you to the "authority" on no 'poo: babyslime's blog page. I have also found this website helpful and informative, and there is an entire no 'poo community at this website.

Going green... in a good way!

2007-09-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

I have been on this major green kick recently. I can't exactly remember how it started, but once I started researching into greener options for one area of my life it was like a big ol' can of green worms was opened up and an avalanche of sustainability released... OK, enough mixing metaphors! Anyway, I have been collecting info and ideas about a variety of green issues recently and I think this will be the place to post them. So stay tuned!

Here goes...

2007-09-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

So, a couple months ago I came to the realization that it was inevitable that I would join Facebook at some point in the future. I also guessed (correctly) that I would probably love it and wish I'd jumped on the band-wagon a lot sooner. Having read a lot of really cool info on other people's blogs recently, I have decided that perhaps blogging may be similar. So here goes nothin'!